8 of the Creepiest, Craziest Things People Have Found in Their Homes

Buying a new home is exciting, but you don’t want it to be too exciting—say, by finding a gravesite in your backyard. Not cool! For a glimpse of why you should never, ever skimp on your home inspection, check out this list of the most bizarre things new homeowners have unearthed on their property after moving in.

Dead chickens

During renovations in February 2015, the dream home of the Bretzius family in Auburn, PA, quickly devolved into the stuff of nightmares when they discovered their 1930s house had been insulated with dead chickens in the walls, along with spices and other “ritualistic objects.” Why? Experts theorized it was a form of Dutch folk magic known as Pow-wow, meant to ward off sickness, which is ironic because this discovery made homeowner Kaija Bretzius feel sick to her stomach.

“We were shocked, horrified, and disgusted,” Bretzius told WNEP News—even more so when she learned that excavating the carcasses would cost $20,000 (they started aGoFundMe for donations).

13 graves

When attempting to build a deck at the back of her house in Charlotte, NC, in June 2012, Roslyn Wright got a nasty surprise when she unearthed 13 gravestones. With graves underneath, naturally. Granted, Wright had been informed before buying the house that there was a graveyard somewhere out back, but the macabre discovery still gave her a turn.

“I never expected that they would be that close,” she told WSOC-TV. At least if a poltergeist arrived, she’d know why.

A lot of ammunition

The previous owner of this house was fully armed to fight off a zombie apocalypse. At least, that’s what the new homeowner figured as he posted images on imgur claiming he found a secret room containing tons of ammo, including thousands of bullets, military-grade gun crates, a defused grenade, and hundreds, if not thousands, of pennies. Maybe so they could be melted down into more ammo?

A ‘mammoth’ discovery

In June 2012 a man (identified only as “John” by ABC News) in Oskaloosa, IA, was walking with his two sons looking for blueberries near their creek. One of the sons pointed out what looked like a ball—but upon closer inspection, the father noted it looked like a bone. They started digging and what they found was big, very big. When they finished, John was holding a 4-foot long femur, which is believed to have come from a mammoth that lived 12,000 years ago. (OK, this one is kind of cool.)

The previous owner

When William Wilson bought a foreclosed home in Cape Coral, FL, he thought the home was empty. It wasn’t. It turns out the reason the house was sold at auction was the owner didn’t pay her taxes—but apparently no one ever checked to see why. So when Wilson entered his new home in November 2014, he found the corpse of the previous homeowner. We presume the house might need a psychic cleansing after that.

Further research and excavation revealed that the well dated to the 16th century and went down 33 feet. Crews also unearthed a sword that must have been tossed in centuries earlier.

“I love the well and think it’s fascinating,” Colin told The Telegraph in August 2012. “I’d love to find out who was here before us. I’ve got a piece of Plymouth’s history in my front room.”

A used body bag

In October 2015, a Detroit woman was cleaning out the garage of her newly purchased home when she came across a menacing find: a body bag, empty but for an “unknown male” tag. The funeral home across the street unequivocally states the bag isn’t theirs, but it’s definitely no super-size Ziploc. Local 4 Detroit tried figuring out who it belonged to and why, but doesn’t have any answers. We kind of hope it never does.